Stories from the front, and the back, and the side.

Yesterday morning I put on my Garmin Vivoactive and for the first time I’d ever noticed it was 0, zero for those who need it spelled out. I decided to take a picture, at first thinking I’d post some whine about having to start all over again. Instead, it launched me into motivational speaker phase on Facebook. So throughout the day I took shots of my watch as I made progress throughout the day and posted updates.

You can check out the Garmin I’m using by clicking on the Amazon ad, but there are lower cost options out there.

Here’s how it all got started.

We don’t start each day at zero in everything, but if all we ever do about anything is think about it, zero is where we will stay. Continue reading →

No new ground broken here, at least in broad themes. It was important to me, though.

This is about losing. Losing someone, about the hole they leave behind, the hole that never completely fills. We learn to accept the hole, but it remains. And it should. That’s what reminds us how valuable our loves are.

I’ve come to accept endings, but I don’t understand them. Is it that we must experience endings so that we value every moment that we have during living? If so, that suggests there is a purpose in all this, something I find comforting, even as I profess no knowledge about something for which I was once so certain.

Maybe the point is to find meaning in the absence of a point. If so, I’m finding that.

This is a rebroadcast (Repodcast if you’re going to be like that.) from Story Night. I’ll be doing this again at least once later this month.

In 2009 I jumped into a pool after my 2-year-old had fallen in. Between the time I jumped and the time I got to him, I had time to wonder if he would need CPR, if I knew CPR and time to have a quick memory of a family I knew growing up.

This story was part of our Oct. 1, 2015 Story Night. The night’s themes were those that could be found in Jonathan Evison’s book, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. The book was the featured title in Kitsap Regional Library’s “One Book, One Community” program for 2015.

Answer me this, defenders of the LDS church’s recent move to set more stringent rules about gay people marrying and having children: If I disavow the church’s policy, am I disavowing the church?

Do you see where I’m going? Children of gay parents are being asked to do just that, and yet many claim disavowing the marriage is not disavowing the people in that marriage. For what it’s worth, the LDS church is really just establishing a hard line in its stance on homosexual coupling.

In this podcast I repeat what I posted earlier on Facebook and on the Field of Steve blog. The post addresses the policy, my own faith journey and where the church stands in my life compared to my family. That and more in the podcast.

Enjoy the first episode of the Story Night podcast. Our first story comes from the winner from the first Story Night event in October. Rosi Farley tells of an enterprising teacher who was more “enterprising” than “teacher.”

This episode is not all that different from all the two-person talk shows you get on conventional radio, only there are not as many commercials. We’re just as good, though, if by “just as good” you mean “at least as tolerable.”

During this episode Caleb and I talk a lot about loyalty to teams and what can drive it away, all in light of what happened with Donald Sterling. Go easy on me. At the time it was still a fresh topic.

On the intro you’ll hear me mention that I think I’ve come to a final place for what the next iteration of podcasting will look like. I think I’ve found a way to do what I have always wanted to do, tell other peoples’ stories. Field of Steve is likely to remain, but there will be a new offering in the works. Stay tuned. On June 22 I should have more information available on the live show.

This episode completes the conspiracy theory storyline by telling the last tale from the month of conspiracy shows and by retelling the story out of Libby, Mont.

Again this is a rebroadcast of a couple of shows from 2011. The first story is about my friend and former boss, Jeff. I used that story to show that if I had written his story it wouldn’t have ended the way it did. The second story is weaving of stories of employees for the Grace Company in Libby and my dad’s own experience with the consequences of choosing to see something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, some of you are saying you have heard it all before. But there is a, however so small, new audience to these shows that I wanted to introduce to one of the more important parts of the 2011 shows.

Plus I was on weekend duty and going to Cincinnati, so I had to come up with something on the quick for the show.

I considered not posting this as a podcast, but there was enough new content that I thought it merited it.

The exit to this show, by the way was recorded from a motel room in Long Beach, Wash. Listen and you’ll hear why.